An Investigation into the Social Aspect of Digital Cinematography

The 1920's also saw the growth of the motion picture industry. It was highly influential and helped shape popular culture by promoting the diffusion of common values and attitudes nationwide. Soon movie studios began building elaborate movie palaces in cities, and by 1930, the movie attendance grew to about 115 million. Movies performed many purposes. It created national trends in clothing and hairstyles and even served as a form of sex education.

Based on Filmsite.org, a website that interprets and explains the history of cinemas, mentions that cinemas in the 1960s had more daring films with darker themes, horror, violence, rock ‘n’ roll and crime. There were also an influx of foreign movies and british movies. This decade in film history, was a period struggling to stay afloat as there was a decline in movies. There was a spike in reinvention of cinemas - change of styles to keep up with television and social changes.

One thing that movie entertainment fulfilled was attracting people to the big screen. For example, I can introduce this quote: “In just eight years, from 1922 to 1930, weekly U.S. movie attendance soared from about forty percent to over ninety percent of the population” (americainclass). This shows how in just eight years movie popularity spiked, where as about 40 million Americans went to motion picture theatres on a weekly basis. As the brink of silent films came to society and the evolution of the industry had risen, going to the movie theatre became a weekly event. This transition in entertainment, from stand-up comedy/plays to movies, was remarkable. The huge trend and liking for going to the movies impacted America in the way it had reshaped entertainment. Movie companies like Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros made a lot of money and success. The industry became very rich. Going to the movie theatre in the 20s was classy, fashionable, and it became a

To begin understanding these medium’s influence on one another, it is important to note that theatre’s effect on motion picture technology, and vice versa, does not alter the core principles of each

An example of a talkie is the film, “Bright Eyes.” In 1934, Shirley Temple starred in the film as a young girl who lost her father to a plane crash. The film is a comedy, yet audiences were able to relate to the young girl as she finds her way through custody battles and more (Document 3). This was also the beginning of movie theaters. Movie theaters began to take the streets between 1900-1920, where people would pay between five to seven cents to watch around an hour and a half film (Document 1). There were a variety of ways to watch films, such as drive-in movie theaters. In drive-in movie theaters, the viewer would drive into a lot with a big screen and watch the film from their car. However, these were very popular in the 1950’s as apposed to the roaring twenties (Document 6). By 1920, such men had been replaced by teams of specialists. Another significant change was the relocation of the industry from the east coast of the United States to Hollywood, a suburb of Los Angeles in southern California. A third important trend was the emergence of several film studios that came to dominate production and distribution during the interwar era. By 1930, the structures and formulae of modern commercial motion pictures had been

traveling circus presentations. They were marveled at, yes, but their use as a form of entertainment was limited and not considered, until on April 14, 1894 in New York City, the Holland brothers showed short films to the public in their arcade, using two rows of kinetoscopes. This started a country-wide fad, and the idea of showing movies gained speed. The film industry began to grow, until the 1920's, when it truly became an industry and movie theaters showing double-features had become common to most towns. This is when Hollywood studios began gaining ground as the place to be for actors, directors, writers, and anyone who was anyone in the film world. In the minds of the average American, Hollywood conjured up images of glamour and sophistication, of movie stars and lazily drifting smoke and reels of film flickering in a dark room. Hollywood; another world in of itself.

Everyone in America, even the most troubling of poverty families attended movies. With a movie to watch, Americans sought refuge in a fantasy world. Films during this time were a perfect distraction. Not only for audiences but also for the artist creating their work. It was extremely

In American history, the 1920’s was a decade thriving in terms of style, social trends and an improving economy. Popular culture during this time period was mainly characterized by the innovation of new technological devices, the arts, and film. Right after World War I came to an end, when the “roaring 20’s” began, cinemas became a huge social and economical success in America during the 1920’s. The cinema turned into a lifestyle for many Americans. American citizens made trips to citizens on a weekly basis. Different theaters were rapidly growing and being built in many towns around the country due to the increasing interest in visiting nice places to watch a film. Cinemas in the early 1920’s showed silent motion films and then gradually later on in the decade ‘talkies’ were released. In the 1920’s the cinema led to an improved economy in America, happier citizens, and the mass media for the cinema created a national culture.

The first movie theatres were rented rooms and music halls.As movies aired popularity and the technology.Movies were an form that captured the interest of the masses worldwide.As a new form of entertainment their success was extremely a made people laugh making the world a happier place to live in after the horrors of WW1.The 1920’s movie goers experience was largely dominated by silent movies but saw the introduction of synchronized sound.The rise of “talkies from the late 1920 onwards led to a radical shake-up of the entertainment industry.Live entertainment went into decline and variety theatres became movie palaces, were eager punters could see exactly the same entertainment as their fellows in Los Angeles,Berlin or Bombay.The belief

The film The General (Keaton 1926) was made during a time when Hollywood and worldwide film-going made a vast expansion. Before the invention of the projector in 1895, those who seeked visual entertainment opted for optical toys, shadow shows, magic lanterns and visual tricks. After this invention and years of experimentation, film had swept across the world, with the 1920’s having some of the greatest impact on its history. The 1920’s was the decade known for “Picture Palaces” or “Movie Palaces”, which were large, elaborately snd classically decorated movie theaters that could fit nearly 2,000 patrons. Genres that had not been very recognized, such as horror and romantic comedies, developed rapidly and successfully, and ended up

picture cinemas still continued. By the 1970’s the movie industry, even with the fact of the rise

In 1894 they created what was called a Cinématographe. With the birth of the cinema camera a new medium of expression was born. Thus allowing artists to capture life in a new light.

The Great Depression was an era of traumatic experiences and despair for many Americans in the nation. The Depression reinforced many traditional goals and created more traditional values for American life. Almost every American family owned a radio during the Great Depression because it was a form of an escape from the daily hardships they encountered but also a way to hear important news they desired. In the first few years of the Depression the attendance at picture shows decreased rapidly due to the decrease of income in the American households. In the middle of the 1930’s, the movies were now in color and contained sound which intrigued the American people and the rise of picture show attendees raised again. The movies were also a getaway

During the mid to late years of the 19th century, a new form of entertainment emerged. Film entered the stage of innovation. New marketing and technological innovations developed for film to become the art it is today. In the 1830s, Joseph Plateau designed the Phenakistoscope. This device had a picture in the middle of a wheel made with mirrors and small openings. When spun, the Phenakistoscope made the picture appear to move. The name changed to Zoetrope in the 1860s and producers advertised the product as an accessory every home needed (Dixon & Foster, 2008). Later inventions that preceded the first motion picture camera include: Henry Du Mont’s Omiscope, Henry R. Heyl’s Phasmatrope, Eadweard Muybridge’s Zoöpraxiscope, Etienne-Jules Marey’s fusil photographique and Eastman Kodak’s chronophotographs (Parkinson, 1997). With a design by Thomas Edison, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson built the first modern movie camera, the Kinetograph, in 1890 (Dixon & Foster, 2008). In 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumiére patented the Cinématographe, a machine that combined the engineering of a camera and a projector (Bergan, 2006). Businessmen capitalized on the growing need for a place to witness these brand new films, thus they charged people to see them in their living rooms (Potter, 2014). These creations made movie-making a reality.

This essay will outline an introduction to the premature years of motion pictures and developments that helped shape cinema as we know it today. This paper will explore the roles of the early pioneers and the extent to which their contributions shaped cinema. In particular, it will look at how E.S Porter and D.W Griffith improved on the early years of cinema as result of influences from Louis and Auguste Lumiere and George Melies.